Kibun
by MasahashiNakamura
Summary: The mood ring couldn't really tell what people were feeling, and Hiro was completely sure that when he looked back at Ando he would see him rolling his eyes at the 'ridiculous' result.


**A/N:** Based on this prompt from the otpprompts tumblr: Imagine your OTP in a gift shop or something of the like, possibly before they become a couple. Person A spots a mood ring, and just for giggles, they slip it on their finger. It changes to the color indicating "in love". Person B begins to question or tease them about it, but A brushes it off, replying that it's just a toy and doesn't mean anything. What happens next is up to you.

* * *

><p>"You look ridiculous."<p>

Hiro just grinned and adjusted the giant pair of star shaped sunglasses he was wearing, "Ando, I do not!"

"Please, take those off." Ando attempted to reach over and take them off of Hiro himself, but Hiro jumped back to stop him from doing so.

They were currently exploring a gift shop in New York. It was filled with silly little trinkets that Hiro loved looking at and testing out. Upon seeing the crazy sunglasses, he couldn't resist seeing what they looked like on him.

"You're no fun. Come on Ando-kun, we're on vacation! Why can't we do amusing things?" Hiro asked.

"We aren't on vacation, you just teleported us down here for the day so we could visit Peter Petrelli. We're supposed to meet him in an hour you know. We shouldn't be goofing off." Ando spoke as if it would actually change Hiro's mind on the matter. It wouldn't.

"Exactly, we still have an hour! We can goof off here for that long." Hiro nodded, quite satisfied with his reply, before taking off the sunglasses and putting them on Ando. "Come on! I know you want to be silly! You're just as dorky as I am."

There was several seconds of silence where his friend seemed to ponder this, and he seemed quite a bit more relaxed after this time had passed.

"How can anyone be as dorky as you?" Ando questioned. Still, he moved over to a little mirror that was in the store and examined the sunglasses. After a moment he grumbled, "I don't think these are the right color for me."

Hiro laughed as Ando went over and swapped the green pair of glasses for a red pair.

"What do you think?" Ando asked, smiling slightly now as he showed off his sunglasses to Hiro.

"That you're even _more_ ridiculous than I am." He almost added that he loved that he was, but ultimately decided not to. He reached over to grab the green pair and put them back on, "Here, now we have matching sunglasses."

Ando practically groaned at that and removed his own pair, "Us having matching star sunglasses is where I'm going to have to draw the line. But I can buy you those if you really want them."

Hiro's grin grew, "Really?"

"Sure." Ando shrugged like it was no big deal, which it truly wasn't, because the glasses were really cheap. Then again, Hiro could have easily bought them himself, yet his best friend had offered to do so. Not to mention that Ando would usually be too embarrassed to allow Hiro to wear that type of thing in public. He couldn't help but feel appreciative and excited about Ando making this purchase for him.

Hiro kind of expected Ando to buy the sunglasses, and then drag them out of there at this point, but to his surprise, his best friend didn't mind staying in the gift shop and looking around a bit more.

After a few minutes of browsing, another product caught Hiro's eye. He rushed over to it, pulling Ando by the wrist along with him.

"Look, mood rings!" Hiro exclaimed.

Ando glanced at them and looked seriously confused, "Why are you excited about this? These things are so cheap. They can never even get the correct mood most of the time."

"Well, let's see!" Hiro took one of the rings and slipped it on his finger. In several moments the original black color had changed into a light blue. He glanced at the box which would tell him the corresponding mood. He pointed at the blue to Ando triumphantly, "See, these can be accurate. It says that I'm 'very happy' right now, which I am!"

"That doesn't mean that it will be right all of the time." Ando insisted.

"Yes, I know that Ando, but it's fun just to pretend sometimes." Hiro smiled more softly now, "How about you try one of these on too, and we'll see what it says? If its accurate, then I will carry on thinking that these are awesome, if not, then we can just make fun of how silly it is."

Ando smiled slightly, "Okay, I'll test it out."

Ando picked up a mood ring and inspected it for a brief moment before putting it on. In seconds the color had changed to purple. Hiro looked back to the box, wanting to see the corresponding mood. What he saw surprised him, as it said that purple meant 'in love'.

At first, he laughed a little, "Awww, you're in love, Ando-kun? That's funny, who are you in love with in here? Is it that display of-?

Hiro's smile faltered as he realized that if that ring was telling the truth, it would mean Ando is in love with him. Suddenly nothing was funny anymore. He couldn't continue to tease his best friend about that result or laugh about how completely inaccurate the mood rings were. This was something incredibly serious to him.

For months, Hiro had been trying to suppress the feelings he'd begun to have for Ando. It had been a strange transition to loving him as a friend to quite possibly being _in love_ with him. It started out when he couldn't stop thinking how much he enjoyed spending time with Ando and how he hoped their close friendship would last forever. Soon after, he started to admire various things about Ando, like his smile, his laugh and how he acted mature a lot of the time but was truly quite a bit silly. Ando had always stuck by Hiro's side, even when things got extremely crazy, and he couldn't have asked for a better companion. Thoughts of how important Ando was to him wouldn't leave his mind. Soon, more feelings of attraction set in and he became surer and surer that he had a huge crush on his best friend.

Upon seeing that ring, his own feelings had hit him like a wave. But he shouldn't have let them back in. The mood ring couldn't really tell what people were feeling, and Hiro was completely sure that when he looked back at Ando he would see him rolling his eyes at the 'ridiculous' result.

But that's not what Hiro saw when he made eye contact with his friend again.

Ando was blushing, there was no doubt about that, and there was a rather worried look on his face that he tried to hide when Hiro looked at him. He tried to pretend his previous expression hadn't been there by laughing, but it came out sounding rather nervously.

Hiro's heart practically stopped. Was it possible that Ando reciprocated his feelings? He opened his mouth, prepared to say something crazy like 'I'm in love with you too!', but didn't have the chance when Ando started to speak.

"I knew that this ring was just a stupid toy. Look at how off it is with my mood!" He shook his head like it was crazy, but his eyes were saying something different. He took off the ring and placed it back where he got it, "Me in love with you? Pffft, that's insane."

"Ando-"

"I think I've humoured you in this shop for long enough, Hiro. I'll be waiting for you outside." Ando didn't even make eye contact with Hiro again as he turned around and walked out of the store. Hiro just stood there for several moments, a little shocked about what had just happened.

Then he felt a rush of confidence and smiled as he decided what he would do now.

* * *

><p>In minutes, Hiro had exited the gift shop and found Ando standing outside, looking pretty deep in thought. When Hiro approached him, Ando looked over at him with a small smile and seemed to be a lot calmer than he was back inside.<p>

"We still have a few hours before we have to meet up with Peter, what are we going to do now?" Ando asked.

A grin broke out on Hiro's face at the question, "I'm so glad you asked! I have an idea!"

His friend was immediately curious, "You do?"

"Of course, now let's go!" Hiro reached out to take Ando's hand and began dragging him down the sidewalk.

"You aren't going to tell me what this idea is?" Ando asked.

"Nope, it's a surprise!" Hiro just hoped that his friend would be happy about what he planned to do.

Their location was only a few blocks away, which he knew because he had seen it as they were walking earlier. He let go of Ando's hand at this point, and found himself almost missing that bit of physical contact. But it was a good sign Ando didn't seem to care that they'd been holding hands.

Hiro's smile grew when the place he wanted to visit was in front of him.

"Central Park?" Ando questioned.

"Yes, but this isn't all." Hiro actually didn't care to be in Central Park for more than maybe ten or twenty minutes. It was just a good setting for what he wanted to say.

"What else-?"

"Ando, stop asking so many questions and just follow me."

His friend listened to his request, and Hiro continued to lead the way into Central Park. It was a really nice environment to visit after being in the midst of bustling people rushing around on roads and sidewalks. There were still many people around the area however, and it was Hiro's goal to find a spot where there were little or no people. This didn't take him very long to find, and when he did, the reality of what he was about to do truly hit him.

He took a deep breath before facing Ando and questioning him, "Did the color of that ring really mean nothing?"

"Of course, it was nothing, nothing at all!" Ando said, speaking a little too quickly and loudly for it not to be suspicious. "It's just a silly toy that insists on crazy things like that."

Hiro expected that his friend would say something along those lines, "Really?"

Ando nodded, and looked a little annoyed, "Yes, why are you asking me this?"

He shrugged like it was nothing, and then smiled a bit, "Actually, you're right, that toy was inaccurate. If it truly told how I felt, mine would have changed to the same color as yours."

At that, Ando froze, looking completely shocked. "You're-"

Before Ando could even complete that thought, Hiro shushed him and reached into his pocket. He pulled out the mood ring that Ando had put on back at the gift shop, which he had bought after his friend left.

Hiro went down on one knee and presented the ring to Ando. He continued to smile sweetly and spoke with a gentle tone, "Would you like to be my boyfriend, Ando-kun?"

A huge grin broke out on his friend's face, "Are you serious?"

"I've wanted to ask you for months." Hiro admitted, nodding enthusiastically. The only thing was, he never truly thought that he would end up asking.

"I bet it's been even longer since I wanted to ask you." Ando revealed, smirking. He reached down and took the mood ring before grabbing Hiro's hands and pulling him to his feet. Hiro then actually went and slipped the ring on Ando's finger, laughing a bit while he did it.

"As much as I like you, I'm not going to walk around wearing this ring." Ando said, before smiling mischievously, "How about I keep this ring, but don't wear it, and find a way to make it up to you?"

"Oh come on, would it really hurt just to wear it for-"

Hiro wasn't able to complete the question due to Ando pulling him close and pressing their lips together. The kiss was a little clumsy for a moment, but then it was warm, sweet, and everything Hiro dreamed it would be. It was also pretty short, but that didn't make Hiro any less excited by it. Ando had just kissed him and it was amazing!

"Okay, you don't have to wear the ring."

Ando laughed and smiled at Hiro in a way that made his heart skip a beat, "You enjoyed that then?"

"What do you think?" Hiro teased, not able to help the huge grin that was on his face. He then took Ando's hands again, loving the idea he may be able to have this type of physical contact all the time now. "It was the perfect kiss, Ando."

"Are you sure about that? I think we can do even better." Ando said, looking very confident about that.

Hiro laughed and was delighted about the idea of more kisses in the near future, "How about we try to improve right now then?"

"There are some people around here Hiro, and I don't think I could kiss you as passionately as I would like to with them nearby." Ando admitted.

Hiro smiled a little mischievously before closing his eyes and concentrating. When he opened them back up everything in the world around him was completely frozen in time. Well, everything except for himself and Ando.

"I don't think anyone will bother us now." Hiro pointed out.

Ando, who had been looking around at the frozen setting, focused back on Hiro, "I think you're right."

Finally, Ando leaned down and brought their lips back together. Hiro kissed him back sweetly for a few moments before it deepened. He couldn't help the small sound of pleasure that he made. There was a deep passion in this kiss, and Hiro was very content about that.

He wondered if he should be worried about this. There was a possibility that things may not work out between them and they would break up. Their friendship likely wouldn't be the same after that and they may not even be able to be around each other anymore. There was also the issue of dealing with a world that was still quite unaccepting when it came to homosexual relationships. Then there were a few other little things that could cause problems for them.

But at that moment, Hiro wasn't worried at all. This was what he had been wanted for ages now and he was going to enjoy the taste of Ando's lips on his for as long as he could.

And since the world had stopped just for them, that could be a very long time.


End file.
